What to look for when buying from the Unity Asset Store

I’ve bought a lot from the Unity Asset Store, and it quickly became apparent that I needed to be mindful of certain things – you don’t want to be buying a dead/ unsupported asset that won’t work with the version of Unity you’re using (or with future versions). When deciding whether or not to buy something from the asset store, I use this list to help me decide:

It’s always useful to read the reviews, you get to see how good something actually is. Any problems will probably be posted here too, which gives you the chance to see how responsive the publisher is with supporting the asset. It could also be why the asset is sitting at 4 stars, instead of 5, but might not bother you … for example, “documentation not good enough/ non-existent” for a script asset, if you’re proficient enough with coding this won’t bother you, but if you’re a beginner this asset probably won’t be for you (yet).

– When was it last updated?

This one is more relevant for scripting assets, the older they are the less support they’re receiving, which means they may not work with the newest versions of Unity and/ or become incompatible with future Unity versions (the next one? the one after that?). Art assets don’t have the same problem, but still check the date the asset was last updated and look for any reviews after that date to make sure there aren’t any issues.

– Is there a forum post you can read through to see how active the dev is?

Many developers have a forum post on the official Unity forums and use this as their support section, here you can see how active the developer is, what problems other buyers have had and if they’ve been fixed/ sorted in a timely fashion. It can give a good insight to what the asset is like before you buy.

– Is their a twitter account to do the same?

Here we’re mainly looking to see if the dev is active online, if you can see they’re posting regularly then you know they’re around for support should you require it after purchase. You can also contact them here (or via email) before you buy to clear up any questions you may have about their asset, don’t be afraid to ask most devs will happily respond in a timely fashion. If the previous points don’t pan out, but you still think you want the asset, It can be useful to contact them anyway to see how active they are, or if their still supporting it.

– What’s the support website like?

The support website link on the Unity Asset Store will quite often link to the forum post, great! If it goes to an actual website, what’s it like? Again for scripting, does it have documentation on? How to guides? FAQ? Contact info (email/ contact form/ Twitter), if the asset is big enough does it have proper up to date documentation (a good example is DOTween).

There’s currently a sale on the Unity Asset Store, use the above info to arm yourselves before making a purchase! Click here to go to the asset store sale.